Good afternoon. Doha's last 16 was not kind to the favourites. The defending champion is gone, so are Fedor Gorst and Carlo Biado, and by the time the quarter-finals broke off just after midday there were three Poles still standing in the Qatar World Cup 10-Ball. Elsewhere, Malta had its best day yet at Heathrow, and Ding Junhui heads home to Nanjing with a ranking problem.
Doha: the last 16 claims the big names
- Wojciech Szewczyk 11–5 Jonas Magpantay. The tie of the round turned out to be the most one-sided. The world number one ended Magpantay's title defence with six racks to spare, and has now dropped only nine racks across his last two matches after beating Szymon Kural 11–4 in the last 32.
- Hsieh Chia-Chen 11–10 Fedor Gorst. Gorst, the No. 7 seed, went all the way to the hill and lost the decider. It is the second time this week Hsieh has beaten a former world champion in a one-rack finish: he edged Biado 9–8 in the winners' qualification round.
- Konrad Juszczyszyn 11–7 Carlo Biado. A day after his six-in-a-row escape against Śniegocki and his win over Sánchez Ruiz, Biado ran out of road. Juszczyszyn, who won an 11–10 thriller against Dominik Jastrząb in the last 32, goes through.
- Daniel Macioł 11–6 Dương Quốc Hoàng. The 2024 champion ended the Vietnamese giant-killer's run after Dương had knocked out Robbie Capito.
- Joshua Filler 11–8 Tobias Bongers. The all-German tie went the way of the No. 2 seed, who opened the week by losing 9–5 to Mustafa Alnar and has not lost since.
- John Morra 11–9 Rocky Tullao. The Canadian, who needed a hill-hill finish against Walter Laikre to get here, keeps going.
- The all-Filipino ties: Miguel Salvilla beat Jerico Bonus 11–9 and AJ Manas beat Jundel Mazon 11–5. That leaves two of the seven Filipinos who reached the last 16.
The quarter-finals, live at the time of writing (races to 11, scores as of about 12:23 GMT):
- Wojciech Szewczyk 0–3 John Morra
- Miguel Salvilla 1–2 Joshua Filler
- Konrad Juszczyszyn 0–3 Daniel Macioł. It's an all-Polish tie, so Poland is guaranteed a semi-finalist.
- Hsieh Chia-Chen 2–0 AJ Manas
It's early in all four, so don't read much into those numbers. The semi-finals are pencilled in for around 16:00 GMT, and the race-to-13 final is on Thursday.
Heathrow: Malta's silver Tuesday
The juniors' results we were waiting on this morning are in. France's Théo Schneider and Thibault Couzigou won the Under-23 doubles, beating Malta's Chaylon Castaldi and Matthias Debono 4–2. The Times of Malta reports that the island finished Tuesday with three silver medals: Castaldi's 5–4 defeat to Leonardo Moreira in the U23 singles, the U23 doubles, and Jake Castaldi and Dielyn Edwards' 4–3 loss to South Africa's Willemse and Fink in the U18 doubles.
- Malta's teams are still in the hunt on the last day. Their U18, U23 and Men's B sides had semi-finals from 10:00 GMT this morning, and Malta Men's A face England A in the Men's A semi at 12:30 GMT.
- The team finals start at 15:00, and the closing ceremony is at 19:30.
Snooker: Ding's £175,000 cliff
- The International Championship (31 October to 7 November) is the last event before the UK Championship seeding cut-off, and nobody has more riding on it than Ding Junhui. The £175,000 he won by taking the Nanjing title in 2024 drops off his two-year total during the event. Projections in the British and Chinese press have him sliding from 15th to the low 20s, which would mean qualifying for York and probably missing the Masters.
- Ding has not won a ranking match in China this season and skipped Belfast. Chinese reports suggest only a run to the final, worth £75,000, would be enough to keep him in the top 16. He opens against Sahil Nayyar in a held-over qualifier, and the winner plays Gao Yang on Sunday at 06:00 GMT.
- The fight for the top 16 is tight further down too. SnookerHQ says less than £30,000 separates Jak Jones in provisional 16th from Zhang Anda in 21st. Ali Carter, provisionally 15th, lost in qualifying and can only wait. Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Allen have both withdrawn.
- Women's tour footnote: Reanne Evans won in Kuala Lumpur on her 41st birthday. It was her 64th World Women's Snooker title and her first ranking win since the 2025 Belgian Women's Open. The tour's next stop is the Irish Women's Open in Carlow from 27 to 29 November.
Where to watch
- Doha: the Qatar Billiard Sports Federation YouTube channel, with the federation's live scoring.
- Heathrow finals: the BPF's streaming partner channel. Team scores are on the League App and singles and doubles on CueScore.
- Nanjing (from Saturday): TNT Sports and discovery+ in the UK and Ireland, CCTV5 and Huya in China, and WST Play in most other territories. Broadcasters are still to be confirmed.
Up next
- This afternoon: the Doha quarter-finals, then the semis at around 16:00 GMT, and the Heathrow team finals from 15:00.
- Thursday 29 October: the Doha final, and the Revora Spanish Open (Euro Tour) gets under way in Gandia.
- Saturday 31 October: the International Championship begins in Nanjing.
We'll have the quarter-final and semi-final results from Doha this evening, plus the Heathrow team champions.
Feature image: “Ding Junhui 2025 Masters” by Kroome111, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0.
